Feds Take Down MegaUpload, Anonymous Nukes Everybody

No one likes having their failures rubbed in their faces, and it looks like the U.S. government and the Hollywood lobbyist groups aren't any different. With the SOPA/PIPA blackouts barely over with, the government -- in collaboration with New Zealand -- shut down MegaUpload.com and arrested four of its employees on charges of copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit racketeering. Bad timing, eh? Anonymous sure thought so -- after the crackdown, the hacktivist went on a major DDoS binge that shutdown a whole host of major government and industry websites. Apparently, Anon doesn't like things rubbed in their face, either.

According to a statement by the group (and backed up by tons of publications, tweets and Facebook chatter), the websites for the Department of Justice, the U.S. Copyright Office, the RIAA, the MPAA, Universal Music, EMI, Warner Music, the FBI and French copyright authority HADOPI all bit the dust under a withering barrage from Anon's Low Orbit Ion Cannon and #OpMegaUpload. At times, Akamai's real-time Web monitor reported global Internet traffic spiked up to 14 percent above normal levels.

The sites are back up now, but TechCrunch is reporting that the files users stored on MegaUpload have all been taken down and are currently irretrievable, regardless of whether or not the files infringed any copyrights. Meanwhile, CNET's Molly Wood speculates that the government intentionally timed the MegaUpload takedown specifically to spit in Anon's face and get them riled up -- thereby erasing the goodwill generated by the SOPA/PIPA protests.